Sorry for the title! I'm not frequently here! But I stopped by to see if anyone had read the AMA a former friend of the Bates posted on reddit. And it turns out, everyone was already talking about the impact of the TV show on the family. @HermioneSparrow mentioned it too! If you can stand reddit formatting, here's a link to the AMA which discusses the evolution of the Bates family as they started getting more popular and showing up on TLC (the author posted personal photos with Erin Bates-Paine, so she certainly knew the Bates to some extent):
Continued from:

Hello all! I've noticed a lot of new posters on the site recently - I'm assuming we have Josh Duggar (who is a waste) to thank - and I got the idea of writing up summaries of the Bateses to help out. Summaries start with the parents and then go by birth age of the child.
Admins, feel free to merge if you need to.
ETA: All summaries are available now. Click on each Spoiler to view them.

The Quiverful of Duggars sub-forum has their own rundown of Duggar wedding dresses, so now with Tori Bates getting married, we obviously need a thread dedicated to dresses. Post your rankings! Here's mine, from best to least:
1. Tori (Bates) Smith
Without question, the most sophisticated dress and despite some iffy modifications, overall beautiful. Extra points for the long train, classy updo, nice shoes, being adventurous enough to choose a champagne underlay, a fitted lace bodice with some sparkle, and even going for a bit of a sexier look. Could be perfect if fitted better on the waist and possibly didn't have the shear sleeves but just the lace cap sleeves, since there's already a lot going on. Her whole winter theme came together well, so this is easily my personal favorite Bates wedding.
2. Alyssa (Bates) Webster
Kudos to Alyssa for going for a well-fitted trumpet style, it looked great on her and fit her personality. Extra points for the bright pink shoes and manila veil. Points taken away for the awkward flower on the waist, the earrings that do not fit the look, and the weird thick strap/cap sleeve since we all know Alyssa was itching to ditch the modesty standards the second she got to Florida. The Barbie pink and blue colors are not for me, but are fitting for her age, personality, and time of year.
3. Whitney (Perkins) Bates
I personally don't like Whitney's dress at all, but at least it fit her well and she went for a cute bolero instead of some dumb modesty modification. I also don't like the gathered-to-the-side style but again, that's just me. Can you imagine her look though if she hadn't been trying her best to be "modest" to impress her new fundie in-laws, had already gone to a few other fundie weddings like Jessa and Jinger's, and had come into the awesome sense of style and beautiful hair she has now? I think she would have looked great in Jessa's dress and a nice updo instead of the over-geled bangs and slightly crunchy waves. Bonus points for this sassy pose though, showing us that jeans and a career in real estate would eventually be in her future even if she had to hide her leggings in her honeymoon pics:
4. Erin (Bates) Paine
I actually thought Erin looked really cute overall and it helps that she's just such a beautiful girl that she'd make any dress look okay, even though she was a victim of the fundie-modesty-frankenstein-t-shirt-dress trend. The dress fit her bodice well, the princess style suited her personality perfectly, there was just enough sparkle, but I just can't get past that awful modesty panel on the front and dumb sleeves. Can you imagine what her wedding would have looked like in 2017 once the Bates had more money from their show and fundies were finding designers like Ms. Renee? Extra points for great hair though and without question the hottest fundie husband:
5. Michael (Bates) Keilen
Poor Michael, she seems like such a nice person but her dress was Rufus-awful and I can't even start on the hair. Her dress is the worst example of modesty-frankenstein alterations, with that horrible ruched front and badly done sleeves, and just generally not form-fitting in any way. As a fellow short girl, she either should have skipped the A-line style for something more fitted at the hips (a sheath, trumpet, or mermaid) or worn heels - it doesn't help that the way it was hemmed made it too long. The only nice thing I can say is I liked the cherry blossom/rustic theme including the pink and beige bridesmaid dresses since it fit their relationship history.
Even worse that in the BuB episode we saw 2 dresses that looked SO much better on her. Look at that first one, and even her hair just down like that, she would have looked gorgeous!
And just for fun, here's Kelly Jo and a porno-stached Gil:

I was just thinking of all the people here and elsewhere who claim Kelly is a better mother than Michelle.
I thought we could start a running list of why Kelly is terrible mother who relied on her older kids to parent the younger. List your favorite reason!
My most recent:
On the volunteer firefighters episode, Kelly, mother of 19, did not even know about adjustable waist childrens' clothing. Michael had to explain it to her. Kelly Bates never dressed her kids or paid attention to simple things like adjustable waist elastics, which are very, very common on childrens' clothing. A decent mother, especially one with a million kids who has to be thrifty, has no reason NOT to know that.
Unless she never dressed her kids.

Previous thread here:
Carlin has a boyfriend, Alyssa has Allie Jane helping take care of Lexi, and Josie wants to work in a salon. Just some of the many things the Bateses have been up to since the beginning of the last thread.
Carry on, folks!

Big sandy starts tomorrow! Fj faves lead the way with sessions such as David Waller's "who are you?" and Gil and Kelly bates' "beware of pitching your tent towards sodom". Interesting to see that the duggars are excluded from the schedule entirely but the bates are presenting multiple sessions each day. (And I wonder - are the bates on the schedule that much bc they are popular or bc ati is scraping the bottom of the barrel for speakers?)
http://familyconferences.org/events/family-conference/big-sandy-2016/

Last thread here:
Recap:
Gil, Kelly, and Carlin went to Australia for an IBLP conference.
Kelly had her 50th birthday.
Tori and Bobby are still cour-dating.
John, Alyssa, and Allie Jane welcomed Lexi Mae to the Webster family.
The Bateses are still shady and half-hiding their ATI/IBLP/Gothard connections. Let's make sure the world can see them.

After months of speculation, it was confirmed that Nathan Bates is courting Ashley Salyer of New York.
Speculation has moved on to engagement, marriage, and so on and so forth.
Part 1 here:
Enjoy!
Edited 7/1: Title edit creativity courtesy of @OnceUponATime

If you have spent any time on Free Jinger, you will likely recognize the acronyms ATI and IBLP. This is the fundamentalist ministry created by Bill Gothard, an unmarried man who believes such things as:
There has long been talk about both Bill Gothard and his brother committing acts of sexual misconduct with female employees and interns. As long ago as 1980, Gothard admitted to "moral failures" with some of the staff. We at FJ have long awaited some kind of action to be taken against this unmarried man who had unlimited access to vulnerable women who are taught from birth that if a man "stumbles" it is the woman's fault.
On around October 21, 2015, we became aware that a civil lawsuit had finally been filed against IBLP and all the members of the Board. Bill Gothard is no longer part of the organization, having been forced to resign after another round of accusations in 2014.
The board members named in the lawsuit are: John Stancil, Anthony Burrus, Gil Bates, Timothy Levendusky, Charles Stephen Paine, Jr., and David York.
From Recovering Grace:
The Complain in it's entirety can be found at the Chicago Tribune Each of the 5 Plaintiffs are asking for $50,000.
Once a leader in the homeschooling movement, Gothard's ministry has managed to largely fly under the radar of the general public, despite having some rather high profile adherents. Recently, Rep. Daniel Webster (R -FL) was considering a run for Speaker of the House, following John Boehner's resignation.
Arguably the most famous followers are The Duggar family of TLC's 19 Kids and Counting, which was cancelled after several scandals related to the oldest Duggar child, Josh. In May, 2015, In Touch magazine dropped the bombshell that when Josh Duggar was a teenager he sexually abused at least 5 girls, including several of his siblings. In August, it was revealed that Josh had not one, but two accounts at Ashley Madison, a website which has the tagline "Life is short. Have an affair."
For some 10 seasons, the Duggars have been promoted by TLC as a (very) large, happy Christian family. They have shown the Duggars on the campaign trail for politicians such a Mike Huckabee and RIck Santorum. While claiming to be a shiny, happy Christian family, the Duggars have spoken out against the gay community and abortion. Josh was hired by the Family Research Council and moved to Washington, DC, which was also documented on 19 Kids and Counting.
Recently, Gothard and his ministry have gotten more mainstream attention thanks to Josh Duggars misconduct and hypocrisy coming to light. While the Duggar family show, 19 Kids and Counting was cancelled by TLC, they have recently announced that they plan to do several "special episodes" of a show starring the newly married Duggar children, Jill Dillard and Jessa Sewald.
What some people may not know is that another high profile Gothard adherent also has a TV show. Gil Bates and his family have a show titled Bringing Up Bates on the UP network. The Bateses are often seen as a less strict, more fun version of the Duggars. They also have 19 kids and in the last several years have married off 4 children, some of which were shown on either 19 Kids and Counting or Bringing up Bates. In fact, one of the Bates children married the son of Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL)
You might recognize the name Gil Bates from earlier in this post. That's right, he is a member of the Board of IBLP and was named in the lawsuit. The general public may have the Duggar's number thanks to Josh, but there is still a high profile IBLP member that has a platform to show off these dangerous beliefs on TV and he seems to be slipping under the radar, just like the Duggars did for many years.
Please join us for discussion here: http://www.freejinger.org/topic/24484-negligence-lawsuit-filed-against-iblp/#top
Further reading:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/10/22/five-women-sue-bill-gothards-ministry-that-has-ties-to-the-duggars/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2015/10/23/fundamentalist_duggar_connected_ministry_is_sued_for_sex_abuse_cover_up.html
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/23/the_cult_of_duggar_worship_must_be_stopped_theres_nothing_glamorous_about_the_familys_ongoing_hypocrisy/

The Top Of The (Fundies) Pops 2011:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops
My number One
titus2.com/ecommerce/products/prod_listing.php/3000
(though Stevie on a google search you are not at No 1 ;-) )
2:
Her banging away at that poor Piano
3:
Notice the sperm maker mouthing the â€˜Wordsâ€™